1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a broadcast receiving apparatus and a control method thereof, and more particularly, to a broadcast receiving apparatus, and a control method thereof, in which a plurality of tuners are used to quickly search for a tunable channel, thereby performing a channel preset operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many devices such as a television (TV), a videotape recorder (VTR), a personal computer (PC), etc. utilize a broadcast receiving apparatus to receive a cable and/or wireless broadcast, so that a user can view the broadcast thereon. Typically, channels allocated for a plurality of broadcasts utilize different frequencies and have different frequency intervals therebetween, according to various international broadcasting standards such as national television system committee (NTSC), phase alternation line (PAL), sequential couleur a memoire (SECAM), etc. In each of these standards, many different channels are available.
Some of the available channels do not carry broadcast signals. Thus, a user may set which channels in a particular device receive broadcast signals from a broadcast signal source, by way of a channel preset operation. Then, the user may select a channel among the preset channels when he/she wants to view a broadcast thereon.
Additionally, as new broadcast signal sources such as a wire broadcast, cable TV, satellite broadcast, etc. have been developed in addition to airwave broadcasts, the number of available channels has increased even further.
Meanwhile, broadcast receiving apparatuses have been developed that provide a plurality of tuners, and display images using a picture-in-picture (PIP) function.
In the case where the broadcast receiving apparatus with the PIP function comprises two tuners, the channel preset operation is performed for all channels by employing one tuner as a main tuner and the other tuner as an auxiliary tuner for the PIP function. In this case, the main tuner of the broadcast receiving apparatus receives a broadcast signal of a first channel corresponding to a first predetermined frequency and divides it into a video signal and an audio signal. Then, the main tuner determines whether the video signal includes a synchronous signal. When the video signal includes such a synchronous signal, the main tuner detects whether the frequency corresponding to the receiving channel includes a right tuning point. If so, the receiving frequency is finely adjusted, and then a channel number and the finely adjusted frequency of the corresponding channel are stored in a separate channel memory or the like.
When the receiving frequency and the channel number of a channel are completely set, the main tuner searches the following channel and repeats the foregoing setting process. Likewise, the main tuner repeats the foregoing process with regard to all available channels.
Thus, in the related art broadcast receiving apparatus, a channel is set on the basis of the synchronous signal and the right tuning point related thereto, and then the following channels are sequentially searched. However, if the number of available channels is very large, it takes very long for such a broadcast receiving apparatus to perform the channel preset operation. Further, there is a limit to the usability of the broadcast receiving apparatus while performing the channel preset, so that a user satisfaction is lowered.